Explanation:
Galaxies don't normally look like this.
NGC 3256
actually shows a current picture of two galaxies that are slowly
colliding.
Quite possibly, in hundreds of millions of years, only one galaxy will remain.
Today, however,
NGC 3256
shows intricate filaments of dark dust, unusual
tidal tails of stars, and a
peculiar center that contains two distinct nuclei.
Although it is likely that no stars in the two
galaxies will directly collide,
the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly.
NGC 3256,
part of the vast
Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies, spans over 100 thousand
light-years
across and is located about 100 million light-years away.